The Hobbit: Snowdrop
by TrueMaetharanel
Summary: So, this was just me wondering why Bilbo never married and then thinking. 'what the heck, i'll see what i type' as you will probably be able to tell.


By: Maetharanel

Started on: July 5, 2013

The Hobbit

"Me? Unsociable? Ha!" Bilbo laughed at the absurd notion. "Be a good lad and put this on the door." Frodo looked at the sign with raised eyebrows. "NO ADMITTANCE EXCEPT ON PARTY BUSINESS." But he obeyed and nailed it onto the gate.

"It helps the rumor that you're not married. Even though you have this lovely home and 'piles' of gold." Frodo said as he nailed it there. He had been especially wondering about that lately.

"Huh." Bilbo said after Frodo had passed out of sight. He remembered when he had been a lad he had had two best friends in the entire world. They had been inseparable, tracking all over the shire in search of Elves and magic. The Trio; Bilbo Baggins and Cedar and Snowdrop Ciders.

Bilbo had met Cedar and Snowdrop on one of the Old Took's birthday party. They had all been begging Gandalf for more fireworks. When or how they became friends he couldn't say. He only remembered that the next day they had all run off to the forest to search for Elves together. Cedar and Snowdrop only lived a few hills away so everyday they were out playing as their parents shook their head but were rest assured that they would grow out of it.

Bilbo remembered that when they had all grown up and Bilbo had inherited Bag End he'd hired Snowdrop to take care of the house until he could do it himself. She had always taken the best care of it, but one day he'd cleaned it himself before she came and she resigned, seeing he could take care of himself. But Bilbo had been sorry to see her go and begged her to stay, but she refused.

It had seemed to him that inheriting Bag End was nothing but trouble. Cedar and Snowdrop never came over, they felt too inferior to his new position to trouble him but Bilbo missed them more than he missed running wild in the woods. After many years of only running into each other at the Market they were finally truly separated and Bilbo thought of them less and less.

"Snowdrop!" Bilbo cried in delight three years later as he recognized the back of her fair head. She had always had light snowy skin like her name suggested with pale blond hair with the ends turning white. Snowdrop turned around and looked at him with teary blue eyes. "What's the matter?" Bilbo asked, the smile sliding from his face.

"Oakley's sick." Snowdrop started sobbing, in the middle of the street with people all around her watching.

"Hey, hey it's okay. C'mon in." Bilbo led her into his home and set her on the couch, busying himself with making tea as his guest collected herself. Oakley was her younger brother, it was a family of three and the father and mother were dead but Oakley was still young comparatively. "So…" Bilbo said as he sat down across from her and poured the tea.

"Oakley got sick three days ago and he just keeps getting worse. He hasn't eaten a morsel or drank a sip." Snowdrop started crying again.

"Did you call for a doctor?" Bilbo asked in alarm.

"No." Snowdrop said miserably. "We can't afford one."

"Why ever not?" Bilbo exclaimed. "I know your family wasn't the wealthiest but Doctor Huckle…"

"No! My father left tens of hundreds of gambling debts at the tavern! Even to your family!" Snowdrop said. "He left a debt for a set of silverware and a bag of silver!"

"I don't need any silverware." Bilbo said, flustered beyond belief, it started her tears again. "Snowdrop, where is Cedar?" Bilbo asked as the thought occurred to him.

"He's working for the Brandybucks by Brandyvine." Snowdrop answered.

"Well, I'll send a letter with whoever's going there next and your brother will be home straightaway." Bilbo said, glad to have a plan. He wasn't sure what to do with a weeping girl with so many problems, but with a plan he could work better. "I'll call for Doctor Huckle and…"

"NO!" Snowdrop pulled herself off the armchair as fast as a deer escaping an archer. "I'm sorry Mr. Baggins, I-I don't know what I was thinking of telling you all that." Snowdrop hurried towards the door.

"Wait! Snowdrop!" Bilbo cried, chasing after her. He caught her hand and tried to give her a reassuring smile. "It's no trouble at all; I just want to make sure that Oakley is taken care of."

"I'm sorry Mr. Baggins, but thank you. We can't be in any more debt then we already are. Thank you though, your generosity is unequaled." Before Bilbo could reply she twisted away, out of his grasp and ran down the hill. When Bilbo went down to the Ciders' home the next day, he found a sign tacked on the gate.

It simply read "GONE TO THE DOCTOR'S." Bilbo looked at in disappointment and relief. At least they were taking Oakley to good hands. Every day for a week after that Bilbo visited the Ciders Hole, waiting for the sign to disappear and for them to be back. But it didn't, and he finally found out through gossip that was running rampant through the little town. He found out from his loathsome cousins. The Sackville Bagginses.

"Why, haven't you heard, cousin dear?" Lobelia asked with a sickly-sweet smile. "Snowdrop isn't coming home for at least another month. The Doctor didn't want Oakley traveling and Snowdrop couldn't leave him."

"Thank goodness he's alright!" Bilbo exclaimed.

"Yes. It's a pity about the girl though." Lobelia didn't look like she pitied Snowdrop a bit.

"What do you mean? Is she alright?" Bilbo asked.

"In health, yes. But the poor dear was so desperate to save her brother she sold her dowry to pay for the doctor! She's regretting it now, I'm sure." Lobelia grinned evilly. "And it's a shame too, her mother's jewelry had been passed on for hundreds of years. If she'd come to me I would have given her a handsomer price." Bilbo turned around and looked down the street at the empty little house. The weeds were already beginning to infest all the carefully tended flowers.

"She'll probably sell her house next to pay off all her father's debts." Lobelia said. "He owed everyone something, even my husband. Of course we didn't say anything since they were going through such a rough patch."

"You must excuse me." Bilbo said and hurried away. He went back to his house and pulled an aging yellow envelope from the mantel above the fire. He quickly pulled out the picture inside and looked at it. Snowdrop had drawn it of him and Cedar a few months before he inherited Bag End. Younger Bilbo and Cedar were both smiling up at him. But most importantly, he saw the writing in the corner.

_The greatest adventure,  
Is what lies ahead,  
Today and tomorrow,  
Are yet to be said,  
The chances the changes,  
Are all yours to make,  
The mold of your life,  
Is in your hands to break!_

Bilbo smiled as he read it. He and Cedar had made that verse up, hoping to explain to their parents why they were always going off in the woods and searching. They had never shown it to anyone in the end, they'd both forgotten about it, though Snowdrop hadn't.

On the other side of the paper was the drawing of Snowdrop that her brother had drawn. Flowers were disorderly in her hair and she seemed to be in the middle of chewing a berry but her sweet smile was there all the same.

They had just been foolish children then. This was reality. Having a sick brother and no money was the harsh reality for the Ciders'. He looked out his window and saw it was already getting dark; he couldn't go to Market till tomorrow so he sent himself off to bed, quite forgetting supper.

"Hullo, Bilbo!" the Jeweler said in surprise as Bilbo walked up to his stall in the market. "What can I do for you?"

"I'd like to buy the jewelry Snowdrop sold to you." Bilbo answered as confidently as he could. The old Hobbit looked surprised but pulled out a rich maple-wood box and opened the lid. There was the silver set. The silver necklace and hair pins, the silver bracelets, the silver earrings. It was all there. But he saw something he'd only seen once, quite by accident. "What's that?"

"Why this here is something Elves wear." Borgin said, because his name was Borgin of course. "Not sure where Lilac got it though. It wasn't part of her original dowry. I remember she wore it on her wedding day, with her veil."

"Elves…" Bilbo muttered to himself, trying to figure out how Cedar and Snowdrop's mother could have gotten it. The image of Snowdrop's light hair flashed through his mind. Had he not once seen an elf with the same color hair? But that didn't make any sense; Snowdrop was a hobbit through and through. Her hair was the only thing that set her apart from everyone else.

"Well, Mr. Baggins?" Bilbo snapped out of his wondering to see Borgin looking at him in amusement.

"Sorry, yes?" Bilbo asked politely.

"Will you be buying the whole set?" Borgin asked.

"Uh, yes please." Bilbo got back his bearings and handed the hobbit the money. "Thank you, Borgin." Bilbo hurried back to his hole and for the next three weeks he simply waited. Then came the day he had been anticipating so much. He saw Snowdrop making her way up the path towards his door from his kitchen window. Off went his apron and he opened the door before she even knocked.

"Snowdrop!" Bilbo hadn't expected the warmth that spread so quickly through his heart at the sight of his old friend. She looked so much better, the worry lines which had lined her forehead were gone and her blue eyes shone brightly once again. "Come in, come in! Have some tea!"

"Bilbo!" Snowdrop shouted when she saw the open box of jewelry on the table then fell back in a faint, luckily landing on the armchair though she bonked her head on the way down.

"Snowdrop?!" Bilbo checked her pulse and found it beating steadily. He fetched the water and soon she was revived and blabbering.

"Bilbo, why do yo-you have th-that?" Snowdrop asked.

"Well, I bought it back for you." Bilbo answered nervously, giving her the box and she stared in wonderment at the jewelry inside.

"You shouldn't have." Snowdrop said. "But thank you."

"You're welcome." Bilbo answered. For the next four hours he and Snowdrop talked. He told her all the news about the Shire and she told him all about Bree, where she'd taken her brother. He couldn't help feeling a pang of jealousy as she described the tall people and the buildings in such great detail.

"I'd better get home." Snowdrop said after a long time. "The Doctor and his son are coming over for dinner."

"Well, goodbye then." Bilbo said and waved at her until she passed out of sight. Then he sat down to smoke his pipe, without knowing that in less than an hour he would be swept into the most exciting adventure of his life.

"Who is that?" Bofur asked suddenly and Bilbo embarrassedly folded the paper but Bofur snatched it out of his hands and studied the picture of Snowdrop. "Your sweetheart, eh?"

"No!" Bilbo took it back.

"Why are you so protective then?" Bofur smiled.

"I'm not." Bilbo said.

"Uh huh." Bofur strolled along beside him. "So you haven't gotten up the nerve to ask the girl, eh?"

"No, no, no. That's not how it is. We've been friends since we were children, we played together, we grew up-"

"Which is one of the many ways people come to love each other and marry." Bofur took a smoke of his pipe in the pouring rain. "Now what you have to do is when you get back, you need to get down on one knee and tell her the truth. She'll say yes and you can happily ever after."

"Bofur, that's not how it is."

"I can hear your name and in dreams; we will meet again…" Bilbo sang to himself as he came back to the shire. It had been a long adventure and the sight of the rolling hills brought a bright smile to his face. He saw it all differently then he had before, but it was still the same shire. He waved to the wonderstruck faces as he headed home. When he got to the hole, he was shocked to find people unloading the house and was told that his future had already been auctioned off. He had to pay to get his furniture back but he was happy nonetheless. As the worker returned the last item from the auction Bilbo pulled him aside.

"Do you know where Cedar and Snowdrop Ciders are?" Bilbo asked politely. When he'd passed their house the curtains had covered all the windows and weeds had started covering the roses.

"Cedar Ciders lives in by the Brandybuck river now sir. Works for the Brandybucks. I hear tell that he's fixing to marry one." The Worker answered with a grin. Weddings were always exciting and a chance for good free food.

"And Snowdrop went there also with Oakley?" Bilbo asked. "Or did she go to Bree?" The smile fell off the worker's face.

"I'm sorry, Master Baggins. Snowdrop died about a week ago." The worker said. "She got whatever her brother had and sent him away to Bree last month. He's been living with the Doctor." Bilbo felt he'd been punched in the stomach over and over again.

"Snowdrop is- dead…?" Bilbo asked weakly.

"We all tried to help take care of her, what with both her brothers gone and all." The Worker looked at the ground. "My wife found her one morning; she had a smile on her face though." The worker cleared his throat. "But she told my wife before she died to give you this." From the cabinet he'd just brought in he pulled out the oaken box and gave it to him. "You made her mighty happy with these here jewels, sir. I think that's why she was smiling when she died. She'd be even happier if you'd come to her funeral, I think. It's tomorrow." The worker walked out of the house and Bilbo sat down numbly in his chair, staring at the open box of jewelry. Then he started to cry.

He had never cried so hard in his entire life. Even when Thorin, Fili and Kili had died. He felt as if a part of his heart had suddenly been pulled out and ripped to pieces. He sat in the armchair where Snowdrop had sat that day so long ago for a long time, with the jewelry box in his lap.

"Bilbo? Bilbo Baggins?" Bilbo heard Gandalf knocking on his door but Bilbo didn't move, not even his eyes. He heard the door creak open and then Gandalf came in. There was a long silence and for the first time Bilbo spoke.

"She died, Gandalf." Bilbo said.

"I know. I was very sorry to hear the news." Gandalf said, he still remembered Snowdrop, the girl who'd loved his fireworks and his stories.

"If I'd been here, and not on that stupid adventure, I could've saved her." Bilbo said bitterly.

"Bilbo…" Gandalf began but Bilbo shook his head impatiently.

"No. I'm right, you know I'm right." Bilbo said. "She could've lived if I'd been here. She would have been able to go to the Doctor and be cured like Oakley. I could have married her!" Bilbo breathed heavily, it had been his regret: not being there to take care of her.

"Bilbo, everyone has been waiting for you to have the funeral." Gandalf said. "I will not tell you that it is wrong to cry, for such is pain, but the tears won't bring her back and neither will staying in this hole. She had a good spirit. I am sure that she would rather see you live your life then weep over her. We only live once after all."

"I wish-" Bilbo felt another tear go down his cheek. "I wish I'd been able to say goodbye."

"Come say goodbye at the funeral then." Gandalf said. He took Bilbo's hand like he was a child and together they made their way down to the graveyard. There, people were paying their respects. Flowers and little gifts were placed inside the wooden coffin with her, Bilbo stayed in the background with Gandalf but Gandalf went forward and inside the plain coffin he put the Elvish crown on her forehead. And Bilbo was the only one who heard what he whispered.

"Hiro hyn hîdh ab 'wanath." Gandalf said and came back and patted Bilbo's back.

Bilbo took a step cautiously forward and then closed his eyes, afraid to look. He finally opened his eyes and was momentarily surprised. Her hands were folded gracefully across her stomach and she was smiling, just like the worker had said.

"I, uh…" Bilbo stuttered and gulped. "I'm sorry that your gone. Um, I'll be sure to take care of Oakley and I'll keep your jewelry nice and…polished." Bilbo took a deep breath. "And I'll check on you…every week. Friday, I guess." Bilbo gulped again. "And, I just wanted to tell you, uh, that I- I love you, Snowdrop. Yes, I really do."

"I guess I'll see you later, huh?" Bilbo said and he was about to turn away when he could've sworn he heard a whisper on the wind. "Yes." That night he laid in his bedroom all alone and the window was open and he heard a sweet singing in the distance.

"The road goes ever, ever on, out from the door where it began…"


End file.
